Stretches - they're bloody important

Let’s talk warm ups and stretches. Usefully, for every site on the internet that says they’re beneficially important you’ll also find others claiming research that they’re not. Likewise, should you stretch then warm up OR warm up then stretch? Both? Neither? What about afterwards? Professor from X University says one thing while a research team from institute Y say the opposite. So what to do?

I’m a firm believer that you should do both before and after any exercise routine: Stretches, warm up, exercise, cool down, stretches. Why?

- Practicality. I know that when I wake up first thing there’s no way my body’s breaking into a long run straight off the bat.

- Stretching will help with your muscles flexibility and though some have criticised whether this in turn actually prevents injury, I can’t imagine that it’d hurt. Consider the absolute worst case scenarios for both: if you do them and critics of stretching are right – it’ll just decrease your muscles force output which means a small decrease in performance time. If you don’t do them and pro-stretching advocates are right – you could tear a muscle which means a) pain and b) you laid up for a period of time while it repairs. For the sake of a few minutes of your time, there’s no harm in playing it safe and getting some key stretches done.

- It’s generally agreed - Warm up activities do help performance times and prevent injuries

- Personal Experience. You will slip, you will stumble and you will jar your body in your training activities. Many a time I’ve tripped on a pot hole or misjudged a curb in my running and am fairly sure if it wasn’t for the right prep work done before hand it would have caused more injury.

- As you stretch and warm up it gets you focused on the task ahead and mentally gets you into the zone.

- As you cool down and stretch, you can reflect on your performance, slow your breathing and enjoy that moment of calm accomplishment – another training session well done

A few things to consider:

A decent stretching and warm up session should take 10-15 minutes. Keep your warm ups and cool downs gentle – don’t push yourself too hard or fast that’s what the main exercise is for. There are dynamic and static stretches – I like to do both but personal preference comes in here. Different types of exercise will mean you may need to focus on specific parts of your body and particular types of stretches. The idea is to stretch the muscle so that you can ‘feel’ it but if you start experiencing pain you’re taking it too far and should stop.